An Absent Family
by self-sacrifice
Summary: Modern day AU. It's been about nine years since the Vessalius family disappeared, and people are being to doubt of their return. A story of romance, family, and the humor of life.
1. The Vessaliuses and the Nightrays

An absent family. 

Life in an apartment was neither too easy or too stressful. Most would think you'd have to be pretty lowly or poor to live in one, but for Leo and Elliot, the 'really gay people' (few would go as far as offending them with fag) as others called them here, it was just what they preferred. In a house, it was stiff and boring, hotels were crowded and noisy, complexes weren't quiet or loud, in the middle of it all. Enough room for the cats, to write their stories, etc. Elliot had the idea when they were sitting in their car, after an attempt for a hotel, and they gave a shot- the first time they set foot and looked around, it was already decided this was their home for life, forever and ever.

Now, adopting a child- that would take some effort, but it was in the storage for ideas to make their lives even more perfect than before. Currently they were both pleased, typing down stories about awesome adventure or high school drama, sometimes even both with a tiny bit of romance, at the moment Elliot petting one of the cats, this one being a tabby brown, who leaped up on his comfortable lap only a few minutes ago, most likely making a new chapter of his drama series, and his black-haired partner reaching down to scratch the other feline, typing up the same genre.

"Oh, now I remember what I was going to ask!" The beige said out loud, swirling his chair to the very right to meet Leo, who sat in the same desk during writing. "We're low on food. Alice said there was going to be a price cut today at her shop, you know. Could you go over there?" His partner met his gaze- rather, his glasses did, and his warm smile was now tilted to a slight frown. "Elliot, remember what today is? I have got to finish this book soon, editing it and all."

"Oh... Uh, yeah, sorry." No way was he going to admit he actually forgot, that may or may not start an argument between the two if Leo was in one of those moods, but his mind was certainly scolding him for forgetting. "Yeah I'll go ahead and get the groceries. I should be back in about thirty minutes." Leo's glasses rose rather high up as if he was widening his eyes underneath. "Not taking the car?" He asked, full attention now on him and not his story. Choking down a snicker at how both of them forgot something, he casually replied with "It's still in the shop.", and headed to the door. "Love you, Leo!" "Love you too, Elliot."

One of the little things he hated about this place was the people. _Especially_ the ones on the bus, who seemingly didn't have any sense to not insult people there, and a bonus to that is when it's Elliot Nightray. While taking a seat, a woman's shrill voice was loud enough for him to hear, pretty much making that on purpose, mocking Elliot with "Oh, that's the gay guy.", and if he wasn't in a busy vehicle at the moment, Elliot would have punched her the moment she finished that sentence. Biting his tongue to make sure he didn't yell at anyone, he begun to have trouble with not focusing with the glances thrown at him, unpleasing his stomach and making the toast from earlier feel burnt, and almost snapped when a child asked "What's wrong with him?", thankfully its mother informed the kid there's nothing wrong with being different. As soon as the bus stopped at Alice's shop, he bolted up, tired and sick of all the looks he was being given and stomped right out. When it was driving past, Elliot let go on his sore tongue, muttering "Damn people...", finally turning to a too brightly-colored shop and do what he needed to do, the reason why he left the safe apartment.

"Hello Mister Nightray!" Chirped a brown-haired lady, who was behind a too white white counter which had been patterned with light daisies and other types of flowers, blue statice on both sides of it, lavender, etc. "Hey Lacie. What are you doing here?" questioned Elliot, in his filled palm there were already two plump, shiny red apples, reaching in for a third as she went on.

"Oh, Alice said she needed some help today. Not that big of a deal, Glen said he could water the flowers today." "Fang and Doug busy?" "Like always!" Spotting a hurrying ebony-haired girl, Alice, down the hall, grabbing some falling fruits and trying to wave a bit to them, Elliot let out a soft chuckle at the sight, it was good to know the Baskerville family was doing just fine, after the rabbit accident and Lotti's confession some doubted they would be able to repair, and well now...

"So, what do you need?" Lacie was stocking fresh, sweet-smelling, and as well tasting, oranges and some rather deformed pears in their place, her daughter, Alice, had joined her now in placing them where they belonged. Elliot's mind begun to count the things they had completely run out of, and some others that they only had one or two of. He already had the apples, leaving about four more things they needed.

"Have any grapes, lemons, strawberries and pineapples?" "I think we've run of out of lemons ourselves." said Alice, and as usual her breath smelling of rotten meat, but skin of flowers, namely lilies. "Even while restocking?" Lacie's smile increased, not once in all the times he had seen her did it really turn upside down, which almost made him want to smile like that, too.

_But Leo's the only one I can show it to,... god I love him, even if I'll never, ever say it out loud!_

"Yep, country's busy." Her voice broke through Elliot's thoughts, her one of her lanky fingers pointed downwards to a corner. "There should be at least one though. Gilbert-" "Seaweed head!" Alice corrected her mother, who was currently jumbling up some plums and mangoes at the end of the basket, gripping the mangoes tightly, almost pounding them into their 'sockets'. "I mean Seaweed head, got most of them. He left about a minute before you arrived." Oh. Well that explained it pretty clearly, at least to him.

"Alright." Elliot's hand hooked over a leaning basket, dropping the apples into there, walking up to them to grab the oranges, then going back and getting the strawberries and grapes, not bothering to get a pineapple this time, then going down to where Lacie had pointed earlier. In fact there was only one puny lemon there, having no others by it at all. _Jeez, Gilbert, can't you just take it? _But he did get the fruit, not wanting to have bothered the girls if he just ignored it.

Elliot had picked up all the food they needed now, for he had gotten some more strawberries and apples, and was leaving the cash for Alice to pick up. "Also, did you guys find any clues to-" Alice lifted one single finger to her mouth, being surprisingly gentle for a girl like her and shushing him. "No, we haven't. You know if we found anything about the Vessaliuses we would tell you as soon as possible. For now, they're still a missing family." Her mother slowly nodded, quiet now and her smile for once fading, moving normally now.

"Nine years. In two days, it will be nine years since their leaving. Elliot, as far as I'm concerned, we're going to look through the customer shipping list extra harder this year." "..Okay. Thank you, and have a good rest of the day." Even Elliot was lowering his voice, although they were the only people in Alice's shop. He walked out just slowly, and when the door closed, he begun to lean on the painted wall. "Stupid Vessaliuses.. Why did they have to leave us?" and with that, Elliot silently waited for the next bus to the apartment, or nearest to it.


	2. A Bit Bipolar

**Author's Note:** I have successfully destroyed the fourth wall.

10/13- It's here, it's here! I'm sorry it took so long for anyone who is reading this.

"Finally."

_Alone time._

Even their cats were disturbed by the cold silence that suddenly hung like a fog in the room, but Leo managed with their obnoxious recklessness now and the noise. He had already finished typing up his story before Elliot had left, and was simply just editing it- he completed editing, however, the moment his husband went out the door to go to the shop. Glancing at the red-colored phone, which had thirty-two messages, all of them both of them couldn't bare to delete. It was their only reminder of the time Oz and his family were _here_, in this very apartment, secretly enjoying their company- being replaced with shadowy characters, loud children that would only result in loud adults, and most of all, arrogant _sluts_. Some who came banging up on their door two AM in the morning with red lips from bites and sucking, asking the same thing every time, to which they would answer _no_ and lock the women out.

Sigh. Of course, the manager liked them and refused to let them out at all when anyone came basically begging for them to leave. Of course he would do that- the women were annoying the gays of the town. This alone time was precious to two very important things: said girls who were going to hate the silence, and the voice mails. Oz had left every single one of them at the same hour, and was probably a complete mess at the last one he had sent. But every time Elliot and Leo got to the end, they couldn't help but snicker or giggle, the first time they heard it all, they happened to laugh together- some rare between the two when it didn't involve-

Nevermind.

Leo had stared at it all for quite a few moments of deciding what he was going to do, emotions swelling up in the bittersweet thoughts, eventually he got up to click-

_Great. They're meowing louder now._

"Nerva, Levon! Please, quiet down."

Talking to the cats. That was one of the countless things Leo had picked up from Elliot, due to his partner's adoration of the puny guys- when Nerva wasn't tiny _at all_- and would still treat them as he would babies. There wasn't ever going to be a time they would snap back, always giving in to their masters and asking for a good treat or two. When it came to Oz, he would sneak maybe five treats to them, besides Levon who was still always being cradled gently in Elliot's arms by the time they found out, and Nerva would leap on his fresh coat or shirt for a game of tug-of-war of the top, always resulting in picking his clothes to get the cat hair off.

Good times with him and his relatives, now all over. It was almost nine years, nine years they disappeared off the continent, due to Alice failed to ever see a Vessalius from Mexico or Canada, and left them all in the dark for why they disappeared, which only few knew, but always said they promised they wouldn't tell why they had left. Elliot had reluctantly agreed by the next 'funeral' they were going to delete the voice mails, by then they would have to move on and possibly forget.

Elliot wouldn't. Nor would Leo.

Five days ago, they realized it was one week before the final good-bye's, to which was now two days away, they shared one look that could cover a page in a book.

They _wouldn't_ and they _couldn't._

Snapping the voice on, it rang it's feminine tone of dullness. "You have thirty-two messages."

Leo sat down on his working chair, aware listening to all of them mostly eat up all the time Elliot was going to be gone. It didn't matter, honestly, if he came at eighteen, which was his most hated one Oz left. It had to do with him after all, but it was a compliment- the beige said it was all lies the moment Leo said that, only resulting in a wide grin and turning quiet to listen to the next message the blonde had given.

By some point, Leo had snoozed off listening to them while wearing that smile, being woken up by the lock violently shaking and pounding on the door, screams translated into gibberish to his waking mind. _Only one person in the whole world would be this angry_-

"LEO! LEO LET ME IN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE!"

"Cheating on you." Leo replied with pure sarcasm, not bothering to wonder what was going through Elliot's mood: more rage or...

It became painfully aware there was surprisingly stunned silence outside after a minute or two, and Leo failed to suppress down a round of small laughter to the realization _his husband believed him_. That caught Elliot's attention from the other side apparently, yelling his head off again, and easily recognized his name in those shouts of pure rage.

"...LEO I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DON'T OPEN IT RIGHT NOW- I KNOW YOU'RE L..."

"Alright, alright, give me a second."

The second he opened the door, Elliot came barging in with his eyes wild, light aflame in anger. His throat hitched up as well as his head, then growled, slamming the door shut with a bang! and giving Leo that cruel death glare once again. Somehow, by some miracle, Leo was unfazed by these actions, managing to control his giggles better now, it wouldn't give him any help if he laughed right now. Instead the consequence would be one of his silent treatments, one happened to last a week when he did smile and laughed uncontrollably at Elliot during an angry moment. At last, Elliot spoke, words as cold as he could have possibly made them.

"Tell me... why you didn't open at the first knock?"

"I was asleep."

"_ASLEEP_! HOW LATE DID YOU-"

"Oh, like _you_ wouldn't know."

For a moment Leo swore that Elliot was about to punch his jaw, it was right in front of him after all, but instead seemed like he was trying to understand what Leo had just said.

"A...ahh... Leo-!"

His face had already been the color of pure pink from his screaming, then deepening to a hot red when this registered completely. Once again a large amount of time passed until he said something, thankfully being gentle this time, actually raising a few fingers to wrap around Leo's, caring and sweet. Leo squeezed back, uncertain of the feeling bubbling inside him was relief Elliot was calming down or the fact he was being so very sweet right now, with his slight worrying and whatnot.

"I suppose I would. I shouldn't keep you up so last with my... You know."

Unable not to grin a little at this, the black-haired male knew what was coming next. Their lips touched sweetly, Elliot tasting of strawberries, like always, with him pecking his mouth and licking Leo's lips if they just happened to rock up. "Mhmmm." Elliot hummed, obviously pleasured, then once Leo parted he faced Elliot who had a raw hunger in his eyes, wanting to devour every scrap of his 'delicious' Leo.

"I hope you know I was actually pretty worried when you said that earlier.."

_Hm? What is he referring to, the cheating statement? _Oh Elliot...

"I thought about the time and... I..."

This time the kiss was a bit rough and needy from his husband's side, but Leo didn't mind all that much, still amused from what he had said. Elliot was easy to frighten when it came to their somewhat complex relationship, but lovable and... what was it called again? A tsunyere? God, he wasn't good with these silly terms. His huband's tongue then stopped it's pace, licking Leo's and his own lips as he parted, humming in pleasure. At this point, Leo had been painfully noting what happened right then, the pain part was the forgotten grocery bag having an iron grip and squeezing, just showing how worried the beige was from a joke.

"Don't worry. I wouldn't do that to you."

Elliot's hand softened at that, and Leo could see the same relief flooding in those beautiful blue eyes. Nuzzling his neck a bit, Elliot had straightened up after all, the couple's hands still were tied around each other. Quiet. Silence.

It was one of those times one had to break the ice by something awkward and strange.

"Leo... Uh... You can let go now."

Elliot's hands fumbled around, with Leo guiding them as if they were tangled together, and the taller male finally let a blush seep into his too perfect skin, walking off to some part of the room, almost tripping over Levon who sped in his path. Still having that childish smile, Leo almost sighed in relief; Elliot hadn't mentioned the Vessaliuses. He always did, the moment he came home, but inside, to which Leo was never going to admit it, he began to lose his own faith for their return.

It was a fairytale. One few believed in anymore.

But no way he was going to say his thoughts to anyone, even if they shared them.

Ever.


	3. Author's Note

**THIS IS AN AUTHOR'S NOTE**

**NOT A CHAPTER. BUT PLEASE READ- IT EXPLAINS MY SITUATION. **

Yes, I am still alive.

Yes, I am still working on Absent.

But no, it won't be updated this month if my predication is right.

I've been suffering some depression problems and health issues- I'm slowly regaining my strength, but not inspired to write when I'm a wreck like this. Please, give me some sympathy and I'll be sure to update with the new chapter ASAP. The very last thing I need is some impatience and maybe some hate for being slow.


End file.
